June 30, 2008
Residual memory of the internet
Who gets to choose when something is “forgotten” from the internet?
Say someone has a Flickr account, a Facebook page and had participated on many forums across the internet. Now say that person passes away. Doesn’t matter the cause.
Should Flickr delete their account?
Should Facebook take down their page?
Should their account and subsequently their posts be removed from the forums?
I am of the belief that we’ve reached a point where the internet has started to transform. The internet is no longer a one way stream of communication. Instead, users have gotten to the point where they shape their experience as well as those also participating in all the Internet has to offer. Communication potential between people has increased tremendously thanks to the common language of TCP/IP. With storage limitations nowhere in sight and increased sense of community, I feel as though these sites should leave deceased users information up and available.
The next big question then becomes, how do you keep this information available while still being respectful?
I think that the accounts probably stay up until they’re automatically taken down due to inactivity/harassment according to the TOS. At any rate, I know a few places, like Facebook, reserve the right to keep your information indefinitely, regardless of what you want them to do with it. It’s a sort of digital immortality so that credit card offers keep getting sent to your corpse.
My opinion is that the various sites should be taken down quickly, maybe within a week or so. MySpace pages and other social sites become a haven for the grief-mongers to spam stupid comments and various cliches all over a dead person’s page when they didn’t even know the person in the first place. If you knew them well enough, you got to say your “goodbye’s” and other pointless crap at the funeral/memorial/wake/whatever other morbid ceremony was held. Delete the site and avoid any problems that could arise from leaving a dead person’s contact information online.
Comment by Larry — June 30, 2008 @ 8:20 am